My Utmost for His Highest

November 23rd

Distraction of antipathy

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt. Psalm 123:3.

The thing of which we have to beware is not so much damage to our belief in God as damage to our Christian temper. “Therefore take heed to thy spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.” The temper of mind is tremendous in its effects, it is the enemy that penetrates right into the soul and distracts the mind from God. There are certain tempers of mind in which we never dare indulge; if we do, we find they have distracted us from faith in God, and until we get back to the quiet mood before God, our faith in Him is nil, and our confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is the thing that rules.
Beware of “the cares of this world,” because they are the things that produce a wrong temper of soul. It is extraordinary what an enormous power there is in simple things to distract our attention from God. Refuse to be swamped with the cares of this life.
Another thing that distracts us is the lust of vindication. St. Augustine prayed—‘O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.’ That temper of mind destroys the soul’s faith in God. ‘I must explain myself; I must get people to understand.’ Our Lord never explained anything; He left mistakes to correct themselves.
When we discern that people are not going on spiritually and allow the discernment to turn to criticism, we block our way to God. God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.

Streams in the Desert

November 23

“Thou hast shewed thy people hard things.” (Psa. 60:3.)

I HAVE always been glad that the Psalmist said to God that some things were hard. There is no mistake about it; there are hard things in life. Some beautiful pink flowers were given me this summer, and as I took them I said, “What are they?” And the answer came, “They are rock flowers; they grow and bloom only on rocks where you can see no soil.” Then I thought of God’s flowers growing in hard places; and I feel, somehow, that He may have a peculiar tenderness for His “rock flowers” that He may not have for His lilies and roses.—Margaret Bottome.
The tests of life are to make, not break us. Trouble may demolish a man’s business but build up his character. The blow at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner man. If God, then, puts or permits anything hard in our lives, be sure that the real peril, the real trouble, is what we shall lose if we flinch or rebel.—Maltbie D. Babcock.

“Heroes are forged on anvils hot with pain,
And splendid courage comes but with the test.
Some natures ripen and some natures bloom
Only on blood-wet soil, some souls prove great
Only in moments dark with death or doom.”
“God gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.”

365 days with Newton

23 NOVEMBER

A precious promise

‘Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.’ Isaiah 41:10
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 41:8–20

This precious promise has been a fountain of consolation to the people of God at all times, and it is as full as ever, as necessary, as suitable, as sure to us, as it has been to others. May the Lord open it at this time, and satisfy every weary soul with his goodness. Let us enquire to whom it is made. The promise is made to Jacob, or Israel, the Lord’s chosen (verse 8). We may understand it in a literal and confined sense—to the nation of Israel. That though they were brought low and had many enemies, yet they should not be overpowered, for the Lord would plead their cause and provide their deliverance. The great promises which chiefly respected gospel times and spiritual things were usually made in such a manner as to afford some comfort to hope to the people under their present distresses. But though it might have this meaning, this was far from being the whole or the chief. We may understand it as a covenant promise to the Mediator that he should be successful in the work of redemption against all obstacles. Though he was Lord of all, for us he humbled himself to the form of a servant, and as such he is in many places encouraged and strengthened by the promises of his God and Father. The intimate and near relation between the Lord Jesus and his people is such that many things said of him are applicable to them likewise. He is pleased to take their name of Jacob, and to allow them a part of his (1 Corinthians 12:12). In this sense I shall consider it: as a promise to the church of God in general, and consequently to each particular believer, to every soul that like Jacob is wrestling for the blessing of the new name.
FOR MEDITATION:
Of thy goodness of old when I read,
Thine arm is not shortened since then,
To those who were sinners like me,
And those who believe in thy name,
Why may I not wrestle and plead,
Ever find thou art Yea, and Amen,
With them a partaker to be?
Through all generations the same.

SERMON: ISAIAH 41:10 [1/5]

My Utmost for His Highest

November 22nd

Shallow and profound

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Cor. 10:31.

Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow concerns of life are not ordained of God; they are as much of God as the profound. It is not your devotion to God that makes you refuse to be shallow, but your wish to impress other people with the fact that you are not shallow, which is a sure sign that you are a spiritual prig. Be careful of the production of contempt in yourself, it always comes along this line, and causes you to go about as a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than you are. Beware of posing as a profound person; God became a Baby.
To be shallow is not a sign of being wicked, nor is shallowness a sign that there are no deeps; the ocean has a shore. The shallow amenities of life, eating and drinking, walking and talking, are all ordained by God. These are the things in which Our Lord lived. He lived in them as the Son of God, and He said that “the disciple is not above his Master.”
Our safeguard is in the shallow things. We have to live the surface commonsense life in a commonsense way; when the deeper things come, God gives them to us apart from the shallow concerns. Never show the deeps to anyone but God. We are so abominably serious, so desperately interested in our own characters, that we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.
Determinedly take no one seriously but God, and the first person you find you have to leave severely alone as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.

Streams in the Desert

November 22

“Believe ye that I am able to do this?” (Matt. 9:28.)

GOD deals with impossibilities. It is never too late for Him to do so, when the impossible is brought to Him, in full faith, by the one in whose life and circumstances the impossible must be accomplished if God is to be glorified. If in our own life there have been rebellion, unbelief, sin, and disaster, it is never too late for God to deal triumphantly with these tragic facts if brought to Him in full surrender and trust. It has often been said, and with truth, that Christianity is the only religion that can deal with man’s past. God can “restore … the years that the locust hath eaten” (Joel 2:25); and He will do this when we put the whole situation and ourselves unreservedly and believingly into His hands. Not because of what we are but because of what He is. God forgives and heals and restores. He is “the God of all grace.” Let us praise Him and trust Him.—Sunday School Times.

“Nothing is too hard for Jesus
  No man can work like Him.”

“We have a God who delights in impossibilities.” Nothing too hard for Me.—Andrew Murray.

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